Name: The Admissions
Rating: 3.083333333333333 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9781101910146

Meg Mitchell Moore

Originally published in hardcover in 2015 by Doubleday.

The Admissions

One of People magazine's Great Beach Reads: "This novel about a striving, upscale California family is a bracing entertainment that zeroes in on the modern pressures put on teens--and their folks." The Admissions brilliantly captures the frazzled pressure cooker of modern life as a seemingly perfect family comes undone by a few desperate measures, long-buried secrets--and college applications! The Hawthorne family has it all. Great jobs, a beautiful house in one of the most affluent areas of northern California, and three charming kids with perfectly straight teeth. And then comes their eldest daughter's senior year of high school . . . Firstborn Angela Hawthorne is a straight-A student and star athlete, with extracurricular activities coming out of her ears and a college application that's not going to write itself. She's set her sights on Harvard, her father's alma mater, and like a dog with a chew toy, Angela won't let up until she's basking in crimson-colored glory. Except her class rank as valedictorian is under attack, she's suddenly losing her edge at cross-country, and she can't help but daydream about the cute baseball player in English class. Of course Angela knows the time put into her schoolgirl crush would be better spent coming up with a subject for her term paper--which, along with her college essay and community service hours has a rapidly approaching deadline. Angela's mother, Nora, is similarly stretched to the limit, juggling parent-teacher meetings, carpool, and a real-estate career where she caters to the mega rich and super-picky buyers and sellers of the Bay Area. The youngest daughter, Maya, still can't read at the age of eight; the middle-child, Cecily, is no longer the happy-go-lucky kid she once was; and the dad, Gabe, seems oblivious to the mounting pressures at home because a devastating secret of his own might be exposed. A few ill-advised moves put the Hawthorne family on a heedless collision course that's equal parts achingly real and delightfully screwball. Sharp and topical, The Admissions shows that if you pull at a loose thread, even the sturdiest of lives start to unravel at the seams of high achievement.

I liked it a lot, the characters were very well written, you could really start to understand each characters thinking patterns and what made them tick throughout the book.

Only reason it’s a lower rating is because it was hard to find a big plot point lol, other then a family who were all stressed out and running around trying to figure out what to do about their thing, idk… great book very interesting, just different 🤷‍♂️

Isaac Rohler

I liked it a lot, the characters were very well written, you could really start to understand each characters thinking patterns and what made them tick throughout the book.

Only reason it’s a lower rating is because it was hard to find a big plot point lol, other then a family who were all stressed out and running around trying to figure out what to do about their thing, idk… great book very interesting, just different 🤷‍♂️

Suzy Dean

While I was reading this book I just kept thinking to myself "This isn't a book. This isn't literature. This is just a story. A normal story." The plot line was incredibly predictable and near the end of the book it became so cheesy and cliche (ironically) that I felt sick to my stomach. There were way too many references to the California Gold Rush which was frankly pointless and suggested that the author continuously ran out of creative energy. Perhaps this book is better received by a younger audience. 18-. The only saving grace of this book was the fact that it was well written. Eloquent writing. It kept me entertained by was by no means a page turner. Would suggest if you're in a bind and looking for an easy beach read but I still suggest searching further.

The Admissions

Reviews

Highlights